Quality of education remains an intractable hurdle but northern states are fast gaining ground

The finding of a recent survey which showed that only 37% of graduates were employable shows the quality of education remains an overwhelming obstacle to the improvement of skills. Though women graduates were a little better off than males the differences were very marginal. A comparison also showed that there was only a marginal improvement in employability over the last one year when it was a few percentage points lower at 33%.

However, the levels of employability varied both across specialisations and states says the report for 2014 presented by the human resource outsourcing company PeopleStrong in partnership with a few other agencies. This study which covered one lakh students from 35 states and union territories spread across 1800 campuses and 100 employers from ten different industries found that the curriculum remained archaic in most cases. Then there is the issue of teaching methods where h the emphasis on learning by rote. The problem of unemployable graduates was the consequence of a combination of these factors along with a few others.

However, these studies show that some sectors of education have however taken steps to overcome some of these limitations through recurring interactions with industry. So the levels of employability, which is defined as the share of students scoring at least 60% marks in the tests conducted by the survey, varied across industries and states.

The study for 2014 found that in at least half a dozen subjects the employability levels were substantially higher than the all India average. The highest was in pharmaceuticals (54.65%), followed by BE/BTech (51.75%), ITI (46.92%), MCA (43.62%), BSc (41.66%) and MBA (41.02%). The worst case scenario was in the case of polytechnics where the employability levels was only 11.53%, followed by BA (19.10%) and BCom (26.99%). Though humanities subjects seems to be a major reason for the overall decline in quality standards technical institutes like polytechnics seems to be the worst culprits.

But what is surmising is that it is the northern states which seems to have an upper hand in English skills. The 2014 study shows the top ranking state was Rajasthan, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Punjab, Kerala and Karnataka. The northern states did well in the case of logical and numerical skills too. Right on top of the list was the once Bimaru states of Rajasthan. Ranked below it was Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Kerala.

The most surprising aspects is that it is the northern states which is ranked first in the computer skills scorings too. Rajasthan was once again right at the top of the list followed by Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Kerala.

So when it comes to the overall quality of education with the states faring well in all three indicators it was Rajasthan that emerged at the top. It was followed by Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Pondicherry. The location of four of the leading seven states in the north indicates that these states have been able to do a better job of improving quality.

What makes the emerging dominance of the northern states in the quality of education even more reassuring is that they have also been able to amass the largest talent pools of educated labour. An estimation of the gender wise presence of employment talent showed that the states have fared very differently.

While with the largest presence of male talent were Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka. But when it comes to female talent it was Punjab that was reining on the top followed by Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Karnataka. Though the Southern and Northern states seems evenly matched the latter seems to be certainly gaining an upper hand.